I started life as a journalist and political operative. These days, I run a strategy consulting firm and have worked with clients like Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. I'm also the author of the newly-released "Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future" (Harvard Business Review Press) and an adjunct professor for Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. I blog for Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, and the Huffington Post. You can reach me via www.dorieclark.com.

How to Make Your Business Book a Bestseller

Want to write a business bestseller? Like Tim Ferriss, consider making an author video. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

More than 1.5 million books were published last year. So how are you going to make sure yours gets noticed? Rob Eagar, author of Sell Your Book Like Wildfire: The Writer’s Guide to Marketing & Publicity, says authors today have more opportunity to drive their book’s sales than ever before. Social media and the Internet allow authors to communicate directly with their audience, creating a powerful marketing opportunity. But the responsibility is also greater: authors are increasingly under pressure from their publishers to take the lead on promotion. “Today, it’s really up to the author to market the book,” says Eagar, “and anything the publisher does is seen as gravy.”

Here are six tips from Eagar to help business authors seize the marketing initiative and sell more books.

Focus your message on results. “The biggest mistake I see business authors get caught up in,” says Eagar, “is telling people what their book is about. Never tell someone what your book is about. Tell them what’s in it for them. Business book authors often get caught up in their methodology and their principles, and they’re so excited about the process or idea they’ve come up with, they forget no one cares. They care about the results the book will produce.”

Start planning publicity up to nine months in advance. Says Eagar, “Some authors tend not to think about marketing their book until it hits the store shelves, and that’s way too late. You need to start marketing your book nine months before it’s going to be available. Speak about your book, build that awareness and excitement; you can start blogging about it or using that content for your newsletter.” Publishers appreciate your early efforts because the pre-order buzz allows them to go to retailers with evidence that your book is generating early momentum – and that can sometimes result in additional promotional support. Eagar advocates sharing sample content months in advance, and collecting testimonials and success stories from people who have used your ideas and can vouch for their results.

Come to your publisher with ideas. Don’t just sit back and assume the publisher will come up with a great marketing strategy, says Eagar: your passivity will send the wrong message. “Come to your publisher’s marketing team with 10-15 ideas already,” says Eagar. “Don’t show up and say, ‘So what are you going to do for my book? It’ll create an antagonistic relationship, and they’ll feel like you’re being lazy. You want to make it feel like a partnership.” Think through what you can bring to the table; maybe you can offer to pay your own way to attend an important conference, or send out free copies to influential contacts.

Leverage the power of free. Many authors might predict that giving away all or part of your book would cannibalize sales. Not so, says Eagar: “I’ve seen that free is an author’s best friend.” He cites the example of his client Lysa TerKeurst, who created a free resource, the “Made to Crave 21 Day Challenge,” to promote her bestselling book Made to Crave. “At first, she was concerned we were giving away the farm,” recalls Eagar. “If readers get 30% [of the book’s content for free], why would they want the rest? But we sold 225,000 copies in the first nine months. Giving resources away allows skeptical readers to get enough content to say, ‘I can see results this can bring to my life.’” The goal, says Eagar, is to give people a reason to talk about your book – and to make it easy for them to share content with their friends. Sample chapters, quizzes, special reports, and how-to articles are all good giveaway possibilities, and you can even consider giving away your entire book electronically for a limited period of time. (See my article “So You Want to Write a Business Book” for an example of successful free e-book distribution.) “I’ve had several publishers report that giving the book away for free can spike sales for 2-3 weeks afterward,” says Eagar.

Make an author video. With the rise of online video, it’s become increasingly common for authors to create “book trailer” videos, much as Hollywood promotes upcoming films. If you can afford a flashy video like Tim Ferriss’ trailer for The 4-Hour Body, by all means. But you can still create a powerful marketing tool on a budget, says Eagar: “If you have a good quality book trailer, it can go viral really fast. You don’t need a lot of fancy graphics or bells and whistles. Any smartphone these days has a built-in high definition video camera, so you don’t have to hire a professional company. You can bring in extra lights, put your smartphone on a tripod, and you can have a video up on YouTube the same day.” The secret is to engage viewers by following three steps. “You start by explaining the reason why the book is important,” says Eagar. “Then you explain why the viewer should trust you – the case for your expertise. Finally, you explain the results your book can create for the reader.” Keep it under three minutes and you’re set.

Don’t overinvest in social media. Finally, resist the urge to go crazy with social media. Though it provides a good opportunity to reach readers, Eagar considers it a “passive approach to marketing.” You never know how invested your Facebook fans or Twitter followers really are, and they can vanish at a moment’s notice if something else captures their attention. Far better, he says, is to balance social media with what he considers “proactive marketing,” including public speaking, publishing articles or being quoted in the media, or sending out regular newsletters. “You want to try to market your book in as many ways as you can where you’re the only choice available in the moment,” he says.

Have you implemented any of these strategies in the past, or do you plan to? Do you have other suggestions to add? Rob Eagar has offered a free copy of his book to one lucky reader who posts a comment by Tuesday, August 7. Check back in the comments section on Wednesday, August 8 and we’ll announce the (randomly chosen) winner.

Dorie Clark is CEO of Clark Strategic Communications and the author of the forthcoming Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future (Harvard Business Review Press). She is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the Ford Foundation. Listen to her podcasts or follow her on Twitter.

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Dorie, I appreciate you taking a stab at sharing what works here. What you fail to tell your readers is that this article is intended for people with an existing fan base, or tribe, if you will. And for those folks, this feels right on point. So if you have 50,000 people dedicated to paying regular attention to you already, dynamite. You might land anywhere from 1,000 – 3,000 sales of your book and maybe even more. But if you haven’t yet landed on the radar of most people, then you need an entirely different strategy. If this is your first, or one of your first books, you want to use this to start generating a legitimate following of your ideas. And for that, I recommend you give away as many books as you can. Ask your publisher for a lower price on promotional copies and get your words out there. I would also invest in a professional video. If you make a video yourself and its your introduction to folks, they are going to assume that the quality of your book matches the quality of your video. Go with a pro and use a transparent and informal video style to share with them why you wrote the book and problem you are solving. They need to feel your sincerity if they are going to trust you with 6 to 10 hours of their time. As a business author nowadays, you are a brand. Start thinking and acting like one. That requires a serious strategy. Love the 9 months in advance recommendation, that’s on point. But again, know where you are and make sure your expectations are in alignment with reality.

Good tips, Eagar knows his stuff. I coach authors how to get on TV and all of his suggestions will help you build a platform to make you more appealing to a TV producer.

Getting on TV to talk about your business book is easy if you use the right system. The thing to remember is that you want to make yourself into an expert who comes off well on TV. It doesn’t matter if your book is self-published or received good reviews. The TV producers don’t really care much about your book. You need a “hook” that ties into what their audience is interested in right now, and you have to be able to present it well.

Excellent insights Dorie! I agree with Corrie that a seventh tip would be to build your following – blogging, writing articles, getting people to sign up for an advance – sneak peak of content can be enticing.

One more tip – or could be added to tip #1 – when speaking in public or to an individual, along with telling them what is in it for them, share some tid bit from the book and specifically say, ” and if you are interested in the rest of that story, just read my book.”

Anne, you’re the lucky winner of the randomly selected book giveaway! If you email me your address (you can use this website: http://dorieclark.com/contact), Rob will send you a free copy of his book. Congratulations!